Wanted Wednesday: Father on run after returning baby from Monday's missing child alert

by Gabrielle Arzola

Deputies are looking for a man you’ve seen on CBS 4 before, he is wanted for attempted murder, domestic violence and child abuse. You may recognize him from Monday’s missing child alert.

Cornelius Florence, 28, is on the run after authorities say he got into an argument with his child’s mother.

“He punched her in the face,” says Art Forgey, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman. “She picked up the child to get out of the situation… she took the child and went outside, and placed the child in her car to leave.”

And that’s when authorities say, Florence tried to kill her.

“He stepped out on onto the balcony, and fired a round at her as she was entering the vehicle,” says Forgey.

The round missed, but deputies say Florence then took the baby from her car, and drove away.

“As the result of that incident on Monday, we issued a missing child alert,” says Forgey.

With the help of detectives, the sheriff’s office was able to convince Florence to drop his child off at a family’s house, where 1-month-old baby Sundara was unharmed.

Florence has been on the run since.

“Is he a danger only to her, or is he a danger to the community? We don’t know,” says Forgey. “It’s not a situation that we want to find out, so we would encourage anyone with information on him to call us and let us serve this warrant.”

Description:

Name: Cornelius Florence

Age: 28 years

Height: 5’8’’

Weight: 180 LBS

If you have any information you can call Crime Stoppers at 352-372-STOP.